Is the First Amendment for Monotheists only?

[elfs]

In their opening arguments to the court, [The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] argued before the court that Pagans are not deserving of equal civil rights as are provided adherents of the preferred faiths. In one of their first arguments to the court, the defendants said that certain traditional faiths are first tier faiths and that those faiths were meant to have equal rights and protections under the United States Constitution, but that all of the other faiths were second tier faiths, and were not meant to have the same equal rights and protections under the United States Constitution as the first tier faiths.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to decide if paganism and witchcraft were ever intended to receive the protections of the Religion Clauses.

Comments

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

:-) I read the liveblogging of the Prop 8 trial. A large part of the reason it passed is because, f'rinstance, the Mormon Church had someone on the ground in every single zip code, usually more than one--20,000 volunteers *just from the Mormon Church*. I'm not going to argue that Equality California did a good enough job, but that it might not have mattered HOW good a job they did, because they were up against a massive, highly coordinated machine that hit on people's fears, exploited them, and actively lied to make sure that anyone who heard them was as afraid as possible.

And yes, the people behind Prop 8--which were the ones defending it in court because neither Schwarzenegger nor his AG were willing to spend taxpayer money defending it--did actively believe that gays and lesbians are less equal than heterosexuals. The reason Prop 8 passed is that a *lot* of people think that way, so deeply that it doesn't even occur to them that maybe there's something wrong with that.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to argue that Equality California did a good enough job, but that it might not have mattered HOW good a job they did

I dunno. I mean yes: it's certainly possible that we would have lost no matter what, but in the end even after the state of Utah basically spent a substantial fraction of its GDP trying to swing the election, it only passed by about 2 percentage points. If EQCA had spend a little less money on big rallies in the Castro and a little more money going door-to-door in the central valley (and had started that process from day one), I think this was entirely winnable.

And also: of course they were up against a massively coordinated machine, etc etc. Anyone who thought that the opposition on this was going to just lay down their arms and walk away has been in a coma for the last ten years. This is why I'm so embittered about EQCA: they showed up with a knife to a gunfight, and I've seen no signs at all that their leadership understands that it was a mistake.

In a nutshell: fuck these idiots. Bring back ACT UP.

Uh, obviously I'm ranting here and this doesn't have much to do with our actual conversation any more. :)